Updated 18 October 2026
Risks are part of the procedure, not small print under a glowing photograph. The TGA states that cosmetic injections are serious medical procedures and that, if performed incorrectly, they can cause serious harm — including skin damage, blindness or death. Aftercare is the written plan your treating team gives you for your procedure. It is not a viral checklist.
This hub will not invent how often a bruise happens, how often a lid droops, or how often someone is “fine the next day”. Those numbers, offered without a study and without your face, are decoration.
What “risk” means here
Every medicine and every needle has a risk conversation. For cosmetic injections that conversation includes, at least:
- the possibility that a medicine is not suitable
- expected local effects that your prescriber should describe
- uncommon but serious events, including vascular problems and vision injury
- the risk of counterfeit or unregistered products
- the risk of an unqualified injector
- the risk of poor aftercare or no after-hours contact
AHPRA’s consumer material on cosmetic injectables likewise treats these as prescription-only medicines that only authorised registered practitioners can prescribe. If you cannot establish who is accountable, do not proceed.
Product risk is not only technique risk
The TGA asks readers to research the product, confirm it on the ARTG, and be wary of cheap imported goods. Counterfeit products can be hard to identify. Asking to see the vial, checking English labelling, and matching the name you were given are reasonable patient behaviours. They are not rudeness.
If a price or a pop-up offer seems to exist because the product “came from overseas”, treat that as a warning, not a bargain.
Aftercare basics — principles, not a protocol
We will not tell you how many hours to avoid exercise, heat, makeup or air travel. Those instructions vary by procedure and by practitioner, and the correct list is the one you are handed. Principles that usually apply:
- Follow the written sheet you were given, not a forum thread.
- Know who to call, including after hours.
- Do not start another practitioner’s “top-up” story without telling both clinics.
- Seek urgent care for sudden vision change, severe pain, colour change in the skin, difficulty breathing, or any symptom you were told to treat as an emergency.
- Keep the product name so emergency clinicians are not guessing.
If you were not given written aftercare, ask for it. The TGA says the person responsible for the procedure is responsible for providing aftercare.
What aftercare is not
It is not a promise that you will look a certain way in a certain number of days. It is not a before-and-after gallery. It is not a reason to ignore a changing mole because you “already did something on your face”. Sun protection remains a Cancer Council conversation every day the UV index is 3 or above. Procedure aftercare and sun-safety aftercare can coexist.
Infection control and setting
A medical procedure belongs in a setting that can manage it. If you are being offered injections in a social setting, a party, a hotel room or any place where emergency care and product traceability look informal, walk away. This site does not need to invent a statistic to say that.
Mental health and pressure
Cosmetic decisions can sit next to body-image distress, social-media pressure or a life event. AHPRA’s cosmetic-procedure work has repeatedly emphasised that advertising must not exploit insecurities. If you feel pushed, pause. A GP, a psychologist or a trusted clinician outside the sales environment can be a better first call than a same-day upgrade.
How to read complication stories online
Anonymous stories can be incomplete, invented, or about a different product. They can also be the only place someone felt able to speak. Use them as a prompt to ask your practitioner a better question, not as a personal risk percentage.
If something already feels wrong
Contact the treating service first if you can. If you cannot reach them, or the symptom is severe, use emergency services or a hospital. You can also raise concerns about a registered practitioner with AHPRA. The cosmetic surgery hub explains safer-choice tools and reporting.
Healthdirect can help you find care pathways, but it cannot watch your skin in real time.
Related pages
What to expect is the pathway before risk becomes aftercare. Finding a registered practitioner is how you reduce one category of avoidable harm. Skin ageing and sun protection remains relevant on every sunny Australian day, procedure or no procedure.
What we mean by “serious harm”
The TGA’s consumer checklist uses plain words: skin damage, blindness, death. Those words are not here to frighten you into a brand of clinic. They are here because a category that can include those outcomes is not a casual beauty extra. A site that hides them under “minimal downtime” is not doing education.
This page will not rank those outcomes by invented frequency. Rare is not the same as never. Common is not a number we will guess.
Medicines you already take
Your prescriber needs your medicine list, including non-prescription products. This website will not publish an interaction table. Interaction tables without your history are how people get a false all-clear. Bring the list. Ask the question in the room.
Alcohol, exercise, heat and makeup
Those topics appear on many aftercare sheets. They appear here only as examples of the kinds of instructions a treating team might write. We will not fill in the hours. If two internet lists disagree, the sheet in your hand wins. If you have no sheet, ask for one.
When to use Healthdirect versus emergency services
Healthdirect is a government-funded information and service-finding doorway. It is useful when you need to understand a general symptom pathway or find care. It is not a substitute for calling emergency services when you have sudden vision change, trouble breathing, or another urgent sign you were warned about. If you are unsure and the symptom is severe, choose the urgent end.
Sharing aftercare on social media
Do not post a product name and a face as a review-ad. Do not ask a comment thread to dose you. Do not treat a stranger’s aftercare as yours. If you want to tell a story about poor care, AHPRA’s reporting path is the accountability path; a viral post is not a regulator.
A last limit
This hub has now restated the regulator’s seriousness, refused invented rates, and sent aftercare back to the treating team. That is as far as a publisher can go without pretending to be in the room. If you needed a protocol, you needed a practitioner. If you needed a warning, you have one.